Rossi prepared for wet race

The Yamaha rider will start from the middle of the front row after claiming second place with his final lap of qualifying, although he was 0.649 seconds slower than pole-winner Casey Stoner.

Rossi had not been happy with his bike in any weather conditions during practice, but felt he made progress during the damp qualifying session.

"We'll have to see what kind of weather we'll have tomorrow," he told Italia1 television.

"However I'm very happy because this morning we needed the entire session to sort out the bike, while this afternoon we found a good set-up and I immediately went fairly well. But we further improved little by little, and in the end I had a good feeling with the bike.

"Now we know we have a good set-up in the wet. We'll try to do the same with the dry one if it's dry tomorrow, otherwise we are ready for a wet race."

He was relieved to take a front row position after having to fight through the field to earn second in Spain a fortnight ago.

"I'm happy because to start on the first row is vital," Rossi said.

"I tried to do the maximum because it's very important: at Barcelona I started from the third row so it was fundamental to start from the front here."